To think I can write a 2000 word assignment before Monday?

[Littlefluffyclouds81]

Me and the dc have been plagued with illness, and now I have 4 days to get this done.

Don't know much about the subject area so will involve a fair bit of reading.

Please tell me your stories of how you started an 8000 word assignment the night before and got a first, or suchlike.

Although, to be fair, a 40% pass would be fine. First year of my degree so it's not the end of the world.

I may be procrastinating by writing this thread.

I work in HE. Try and get an extension - if you have been ill it may well be granted. yes, perfectly possible to write 2000 words in a few hours. It is the bit that comes after that that is so important and may gain you higher marks - proof reading, reading out loud, checking refs and checking again. Be kind to yourself and give yourself as many chances as possible to do as well as you can.

Of course you can, I never spent more than 3 or 4 days on one - it's only 500 words a day til Monday, you could do that in a couple of hours including reading time!

I wrote my 10,000 word undergraduate dissertation in 3 days (and I did get a first!) So go, go, go!

I've started doing this on purpose. I found I was getting the same or higher marks for last-minute assignments than ones I was starting weeks before the due date and working on regularly.

My method:

• search the journals for papers relating to the topic, read the exec summaries and print off relevant ones
• skim-read the papers and highlight relevant passages that you can include in your assignment and reference
• I use three or four coloured highlighters corresponding to the various sections of the question (e.g. yellow = risk factors in projects, orange = how to mitigate risks, green = ways of identifying risk)
• write out your essay plan of what you will include in each section, bullet pointed

That usually takes me about three hours. Then the actual writing is easy because you know exactly what you need to say and you have your references worked out. Using this method I have written 2,000 word assignments in four hours and received distinctions.

Ted, I think you might be my hero - I am going to use I did it on purpose!

Yes easy. Thursday do some research on the topic and find some really good papers which reference other good papers. Friday mkrning plan. Friday afternoon and Saturday morning write it. Sunday morning proof read and check it over.

And you'll still have time to do other things on Saturday afternoon.

Of course it can be done. I wrote a 120 pages long master dissertation in 2 weeks while I was still having 20 hours of classes every week (and having to write essays and taking exams for those as well in the mean time). I had done the reading in advance, though.
Later in life I went back to university and I wrote a 2000 words essay every week, whilst working full-time and having a young child.
At the moment a colleague and I are writing a new schoolbook. I started in March and she started in April. It will have to be finished by the end of this month. In that period of time, the book itself will have to be written (no lay-out though, fortunately), the teacher's manual has to be written, all audiofragments need to be recorded, illustrations have to be made, pictures taken, etc etc. We do all that on top of teaching three nights a week. It's possible. I faff around for a day, thinking, reading, etc. and then I write almost a complete chapter in about 6 hours.
I think the reading and outlining of what you want to write takes the longest. The writing itself is quite easy.

I wrote my dissertation at uni in the Xmas break [i'd been on extended internship working full time over the period I would have been studying and writing, so no choice]

I'd done the research so I just wrote a structure out and gave myself a doable word count every day.

I had a rubbish night's sleep so I'm having to prop my eyes open but I'm on it!

That is plenty of time. As an undergraduate we had to knock out two essays a week on average. (A triumph of quantatity over quality in nearly every single case) but it is eminently doable and something way above 40% is within your grasp. My first degree is in Social & Political Science so I remember Learning to labour (though dimly now ) and may have even written an essay on it. But there is a wide body of literature on education and class. Tackle the reading list today, obviously you need to read learning to labour (as I recall lots of it was taken up with accounts from the lads and the conceptual stuff is at the back) in terms of additional reading go for the most recent journal articles first, they will be more conscise than the monographs and will reference and summarise some of the other texts you need to study. (You can then cross reference/investigate those sources. You can get this done today.

Tomorrow, plan, plan,plan. If you feel under pressure it is easy to get muddled or go off on a tangent. You need a plan of each paragraph/section you write detailing 1) Topic sentence (the point you intend to make) 2. What academics have written about this issue 3. Your argument /take on it 4.) A note of the supporting evidence 5. How this paragraph/section will feed into the next one.

Try and press on with the introduction tomorrow too, be conscise and spell out what the essay will do. It shows the undoubtedly tired marker exactly what you are going to do 'this essay will examine x,y and z before arguing that.... '

If you are ruthless and methodical the actual essay writing should be relatively straightforward as you are going off the plan.

I have to go, I have a PhD thesis to write. Just the conclusion to write (circa 3,000 words) so if we both stick to it, we will both be feeling better come Monday.

Thank you compos, that's really helpful. Good luck with yours. Any ideas of nifty essay titles related to class I could do for section two? I'm thinking something to do with subcultures maybe. I need to be able to relate it to a social theory and a metaphor.

No worries, I will wrack my brains, but I'm not at my most mentally nimble at the moment but if anything pops into my head, I'll let you know. Good luck!

Does anyone use a referencing tool like this?

studentessentialtips.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/adding-harvard-style-referencing-to-word-2011/

I can't decide whether it will make my life easier at this very rushed stage or not.

I use CiteThisForMe... Has saved so much time

Thanks, I will look that up. It is 26 years since I finished my first degree and I realised last week that I was still referencing manually , I need to get with it it think.

I wrote my 24000 dissertation for my masters degree in a week. . Although we didn't have to use Harvard referencing, which made it a lot easier.

I'm doing a MA at the moment and Cite this for me is a lifesaver! They didn't have stuff like that when I was at uni before. God bless the Internet!

I done literally all my uni essays the day before because I'm lazy and I got a first! Different approaches work best for different people though I guess! Good luck with it anyway, sure you'll do great!

During year 2 of my degree, I got DD to nursery at 9 am, went home, wrote a 2,500 word essay from scratch (including research, referencing, etc), sent if off and went to collect DD at 12.30 pm.

Got 95% for that baby!

You can do it, OP!

When I was doing my degree I used to read over about three days, do rough plan of what I wanted to say (intro, main argument, counter arguments, conclusions etc) and write/ type through the night *usually the night before it was due.

Good Lord, Vino, you must have a brain the size of a pumpkin!

Iwasbornin1993: I'm not the grammar police, I promise, but I have to point out that it's 'did', not 'done'.

Yanbu. I've started 2000 word essays rhw night before they were due on too many occasions. Got decent marks in most too. I did not have a child back then though.

Good luck!

My ds wrote his 15000 word thesis in 2 weeks. He was as cool as a cucumber about it. I was chewing my hands off.

He got a 2:1. Totally possible

Of course you can! We used to have to turn out that much in a two- three hour exam! :)

Think it took me two weeks to write my PhD thesis. Referencing properly is the time suck, make sure you do it as you go along.

My last one was 4000 words. I started it one Saturday morning, took me about 6 solid hours but I got it done! And I passed with 72% fluked it I think! Also in first year x